Health & Wellness

Pharmaceutical medication abuses are rampant in the United States. Pharma's concoctions combined with mega advertising campaigns and liberally-prescribing doctors have placed our society on the brink of mental dystopian.

We have so many prescription drug issues in our country that we can't even properly keep up with all of the problems. We know that opioids are a major problem. We somewhat understand that SSRI's aren't good. Maybe we heard that certain heartburn medications, such as Pepcid, aren't good either. The sheer volume of issues has weighed us down. We don't even know where to begin to solve it.

By 2013, 3.5 million children were on stimulants, and in many cases, the Ritalin had been replaced by Adderall, officially brought to market in 1996 as the new, upgraded choice for A.D.H.D. — more effective, longer lasting.

Adderall's very name reflects its makers' hopes for an expanding customer base: "A.D.D. for all" is the phrase that inspired it, Alan Schwarz writes in his new book, A.D.H.D. Nation. And in fact, by the time I arrived at college in 2000, four years after Adderall hit the market, nearly five million prescriptions were written; in 2005, the year after I graduated, that number was just under nine million. By then, sales of A.D.H.D. medication in the United States totaled more than $2 billion.

Millions of patients are being misled about the pros and cons of statins, experts claimed last night.

Accusing the medical establishment of perpetuating a 'great cholesterol con', they questioned whether statin pills are as effective as claimed.

The group of doctors, from Britain, the US, France and Ireland, said the very theory on which statins are based - that lowering 'bad' LDL cholesterol cuts heart disease - is 'fundamentally flawed'.

Writing in the Prescriber medical journal, they said the side-effects of statins may be far more common than major studies suggest - and called for companies and academics to publish their raw data so others could independently analyse the results.

Others last night dismissed their claims - and said the evidence that statins save lives is 'overwhelming'.

Most cardiologists think cholesterol-busting statin pills are a cheap, safe and effective way of preventing heart attacks and strokes among an ageing and increasingly obese population.

But many others are uneasy about prescribing drugs to patients 'just in case' they have heart problems later on. And authors of the new piece, led by London cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra, question whether they are even as effective as thought, claiming the 'cholesterol con' has led to 'overmedication' of millions.

The only major changes I'd made to my lifestyle since coming off statins were eliminating sugar (including alcohol and starchy foods such as bread) and eating more animal fat. Many experts now believe that sugar is emerging as a true villain in the heart-disease story; while after decades of demonisation, saturated fat has been acquitted of causing heart disease by a recent "meta" analysis of 70 studies by Cambridge University.

In addition, numerous studies have linked high cholesterol levels with increased longevity in the elderly.

Public anger at Pharma and its outrageous prices has never been higher. First a smirking Martin Shkreli, founder of Turing Pharmaceuticals, refused to explain or defend his price hike of the antiparasitic drug Daraprim from $13.50 to $750 on the Hill in February, a price hike that could put the life-saving drug out of reach for some. With clear derision for regulators and the public itself, he tweeted that lawmakers were "imbeciles" after he testified. Then Mylan jacked the price of its EpiPen, an emergency allergy treatment that saves lives, to $600 up from the $100 almost overnight this summer. After public uproar, Mylan offered EpiPen cost breaks to low-income people--a common Pharma ruse that simply shifts costs to others while letting Pharma keep its prices.

And even as U.S. Pharma companies profiteer on older drugs like Daraprim (and newer drugs like the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi which costs $84,000 a course of treatment), they try to duck U.S. taxes with overseas partnerships and incorporations. The same taxes that fund their drugs in Medicare, TRICARE, the VA and other U.S. entitlement programs.

Pharma may be becoming one of the public's most reviled sectors but the U.S. government is in the process of erasing the few regulatory firewalls that have existed and tolerating alarming conflicts of interest.

Egg production in the U.S. is pretty impressive: 50 billion eggs per year, but unfortunately that large number is achieved through the use of industrial agriculture, namely concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs).1

About 70 percent of the eggs produced are sold as is, while the rest have their shells removed for conversion into both liquid and dried egg products, sometimes with just the whites (as the yolks have been touted as causing heart disease).

Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana and California are the biggest producers, and the U.S. is the largest egg-producing country in the world.

Some people say brown eggs are better for you because they contain more nutrients. Others are convinced they're better for cooking fluffy things like quiches, while white eggs are better for baking cakes. Then there are those who believe just the opposite.

What's the real difference between brown eggs and white eggs? One expert says that there's no difference on the inside, nutrition-wise, whether the egg is brown or white (although the way the chickens are raised can change that).

When speaking about big and powerful pharmaceutical companies, one of the first things that should come to mind is scientific fraud, instances of which emerge with alarming frequency. A recent corruption leak, for example, was exposed from a study that was published in the British Medical Journal by researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen. The study showed that pharmaceutical companies were not disclosing all information regarding the results of their drug trials. This particular study dealt with antidepressants, exposing multiple dangers associated with these drugs. (source)

Comment: For more information on the nonsensical notion of "herd immunity" see the following:

As we celebrate the wonderful Thanksgiving holiday and all we have to be truly grateful for, one thing that takes center stage at Thanksgiving is food—glorious tasting food of all kinds, flavors and recipes. However, today's food is not what food was prior to the 1990s. Food now contains genetically modified organisms which are harming the human gut, microbiome and immune system.

My Thanksgiving wish for all readers is that society everywhere can come to the realization that food really is medicine for the body, mind and even our spirit. Eating wholesome, clean, non-GMO foods is the best thing we can do to maintain our children's and our own health and wellbeing.

The Institute for Responsible Technology produced the following 4 minute video which ought to impress upon everyone the importance of a non-GMO diet and lifestyle.

Hundreds of people in Melbourne, Australia, experienced breathing problems during a recent storm, in what's being called an outbreak of "thunderstorm asthma." But what's behind this rare phenomenon?

On Monday (Nov. 21) evening, the ambulance service in Melbourne, called Ambulance Victoria, received more than 1,800 calls during the storm, which is about six times more than usual, according to the BBC.

About 200 calls were for cases of asthma, and 600 calls were for people with breathing difficulties, Mick Stephenson, executive director of emergency operations at Ambulance Victoria, told the BBC. "A lot of people who called last night had never had asthma before," Stephenson was quoted as saying. There were also two deaths from asthma during the storm.

It found treatment traditionally offered to older generations was increasingly being sought by younger people, aged mainly between 25 and 45 - a shift it attributed to time spent sitting at desks, watching box sets and using smartphones and tablets.

Removal of haemorrhoids and varicose veins were two of the most common procedures in the heart and circulatory diseases category for both 26 to 35-year-olds and 36 to 45-year-olds.

Research shows that Candida triggers histamine release, but did you know you can be allergic to candida, causing repeated, longer lasting or more intense infections? Or that those with chronic candida are 70% more likely to have a history of family allergies and allergic rhinitis? There's really exciting news though - Tufts researchers have made a discovery that will rock our world!

While I personally believe candida to be a catch all diagnosis that is often incorrect, especially when self diagnosed, it is something that comes up frequently when I meet people.

Around the time he was diagnosed with younger-onset Alzheimer's disease, 55-year-old Brian Leblanc spent all day "just doing nothing." The former marketing and public relations executive dozed in his recliner, often for hours at a time. At night he felt restless. He awoke at 3:30 every morning, unable to fall back asleep. He forgot to eat and shed more than 50 pounds. One day, unable to recall whether he had eaten lunch, Leblanc made a decision. "I didn't want to go down that hole any longer," he says. "I decided I'm going to do something each and every day to make a difference."

Now, Leblanc tries to stay active in the daytime, fending off drowsiness by riding his bike around Pensacola, Florida,and playing with his dog Dallas, a 10-year-old Chorkie (Yorkshire terrier/Chihuahua mix). A member of the Early-Stage Advisory Group for the Alzheimer's Association, he gives presentations a few times a month to raise awareness of the disease and advocate on behalf of patients. In the evening, he dims the alarm clock and cable router lights in his bedroom. Now he sleeps soundly. When he awakens, his mind feels sharper, his mood brighter. Spending time in the sun makes him "come alive," he says. "It gives me a new outlook on the day."